An Australian Railway Project.
Despite the financial depression in Australia, due to the long drought, that country is planning a large development in her railway system. The South Australian Government has projected a road which, by running from south to north and connecting the railways already built, will connect the Indian with the Southern Pacific Ocean. This line is to be 1,200 miles long, and will be built and equipped in such a way as to accommodate trains running at a speed of twenty miles an hour, stoppages included. The estimated cost is $30,000,000, and tenders are to be invited from Australia, the United States, Great Britain, France and Germany, eighteen months being allowed for their preparation. What are apparently the most liberal terms will be offered by the government. The company contracting to build the road will be granted, in return for their outlay, territory along the road amounting to 75,000 acres per mile, or in all 90,000,000, a territory larger than the whole of Great Britain and Ireland. This land will not be taxed by the government for ten years. The company also receives a title to whatever gold and other minerals are found in the territory granted them. A considerable part of the road, however, will run through territory which is practically unsettled, so that the cost of running trains will be heavy. The drought, which has been so disastrous to Australian prosperity, is at last broken, and for several weeks there has been a heavy rainfall in the country.—Independent.